Smart Business Magazine, June 2016

6 Smart Business Akron Canton June 2016 FRED KOURY FROM THE CEO FRED KOURY President and CEO Smart Business Network Inc is the publisher of Smart Business magazine and operates Convero a customer and employee engagement firm Fred is committed to focusing on relationships not transactions in everything he does 800 988 4726 fkoury@ sbnonline com www sbnonline com www converoinc com www facebook com SmartBusiness http on fb me 1RseSyO @ FredKoury www linkedin com in fredkoury Dream big Dont let the present obstruct your view of the future There is a lot more risk at play when you rely on your minds eye to shape the future of your business But isnt that why you are in a leadership position today to make a great difference English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling once wrote They copied all they could follow but they couldnt copy my mind and I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind No one has a mind like you and no one thinks exactly the way you do You cannot afford to let such a valuable tool go to waste Your ability to take the knowledge you have of your business and think about what else you could be doing to better serve your customers is what can set you apart from the competition The secret is that you need to allow yourself the time to think creatively You cant get bogged down dealing with the day to day challenges that your company faces If you stop to put out todays fire theres just going to be another crisis to confront tomorrow Delegate those problems that dont require your presence to be solved and free yourself to think about the opportunities that could potentially transform your business Sketch out a plan and consider the resources it would take to implement it It might be a crazy idea that has no chance of happening or it could be something that is years away from even being possible But if youre thinking about it it just moved one step closer to being possible The famous quote first attributed to George Bernard Shaw and then to former President John F Kennedy says You see things and you say Why But I dream of things that never were and I say Why not Thats the approach that you must take as the leader of your business Life is too short to look at it any other way Those who have the talent to lead and to build organizations have a responsibility to get the most out of those gifts You cant play it safe and you cant worry about your own downside at the expense of growth opportunities Failure is always a possibility and you may look back at a risk you took and wish you had not done it But thats far better than looking back and wondering what might have been if you had the courage to take a chance at a greater good Take the time to use your imagination in business and youll be amazed by what you can achieve It sounds easy enough but leaders often have a difficult time letting go of the things they can see or touch to go after ideas that only exist in their minds